


We Have Gathered Here Today

by prosodiical



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: Fake Marriage, Marriage of Convenience, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-28 18:17:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17792342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prosodiical/pseuds/prosodiical
Summary: Carlos does not get drunk at the wedding. Junpei does; or is trying to, at least.





	We Have Gathered Here Today

**Author's Note:**

  * For [graveExcitement](https://archiveofourown.org/users/graveExcitement/gifts).



Carlos does not get drunk at the wedding.

Junpei does; or is trying to, at least. It's probably not a good thing, so Carlos swipes his sixth glass of champagne and downs it instead, nearly coughing when the bubbles go up his nose. Akane smiles at him conspiratorially from across the room, resplendent in her simple gown, before she's accosted for yet another dance. The ring Junpei gave her three months ago still sits on her finger.

Carlos slants a look at Junpei, who's staring down a sommelier like he might ask for the whole bottle. "Hey," he says, "c'mon, let's dance. Groom's privilege."

"Groom's _what_?" Junpei repeats with flat disbelief, but he takes Carlos's hand and lets him drag him out to the floor. A space clears for them, and Carlos manages a smile that almost feels real; Junpei closes his eyes, exhales a long, frustrated breath, and his face mostly clears. "That's not a thing."

"What would you know?" Carlos asks. "How many weddings have you been to?"

"Enough." Junpei lets Carlos take the lead with visible trepidation, and Carlos makes every effort to let it not go to waste. He took dancing lessons for this, building on a handful in high school, so he manages not to step on Junpei's toes. "I don't need to have been to one to know when you're making shit up."

"Hey," Carlos protests, half-heartedly. "It's not that bad, is it?"

"Yeah, sure," Junpei mutters, and gives Carlos an unreadable look. "Just try not to act like you're doing this at gunpoint."

"That might be easier," Carlos says, and for the first time that evening Junpei cracks a smile.

"Tell that to Akane," he says. 

Carlos meets her eyes over his shoulder, sees the amusement in her smile, and lets her pull Junpei away.

He dances with Maria three times before the reception ends. She laughs at him when he says, "I don't know what I've gotten into," and pats his arm in mocking sympathy, and Akane's no better when he wonders if he could SHIFT to a better timeline. "It's difficult to trigger if you don't actually fear for your life," she says, her fingers delicate in his, his hand on her waist. "And we wouldn't let that happen here. Of course, it can be practiced - access to the morphogenetic field isn't entirely reliant on it."

"That's... learning stuff in other timelines, right?" Carlos says, almost morbidly curious, and Akane lets him spin her out in a well-choreographed twirl.

"Yes, though there can be other benefits as well - rudimentary telepathy, for one. We can try it later, if you like. It'd be nice, actually..."

"Actually, what?" Carlos asks.

"Well, Jumpy isn't really interested." Akane sighs. "That might be my fault."

"Hey," Carlos says, "if I know the two of you, I'm sure you can make him interested."

"Carlos!" Akane protests, demurely lowered eyelashes at odds with her mischievous smile, and Carlos tries not to feel resentful at her pushing him into this. It's actually pretty easy, especially when she leans up and presses a soft kiss to his cheek. For a moment, he thinks he almost feels her: a sense of purpose, a tangled future unwinding, and then it's gone as much as she is, spinning away for another dance.

Junpei sidles up to him from the edge of the dance floor, snagging his sleeve, another champagne glass in his hand. Carlos steals it for a sip and Junpei elbows him and steals it back, downing it in one long gulp. Carlos's gaze lingers on the line of his throat for a moment too long. "We're allowed to leave early," Junpei says, "or so your sister says. Want to get out of here?"

"Usually that's for..."

"Yeah, so what?" Junpei shifts on his feet and pulls at his tie uncomfortably, though it's already loosened, his top button undone. "Fuck, why are you so tall," he mutters, and Carlos is smiling again when he kisses him.

It's light, largely chaste, but Junpei lingers on it in a way Carlos doesn't expect, in a way that makes his heart skip a beat. The way Junpei looks at him after makes Carlos feel oddly self-conscious, particularly when Junpei says, "Yeah, I guess you'll do."

"I'd hope so," Carlos says, slightly bewildered, and waves a goodbye to Maria before Junpei can manhandle him out of the reception hall to the hired car.

Akane's already inside, which isn't particularly surprising. Neither is the way Junpei kisses her, a hand cradling her face, another slipping down her bare arm. There's barely enough room here for Carlos to look away but he pulls his gaze to the tinted window beside him, ignoring the soft wet sounds of their mouth against each other, the pleased hum in Akane's throat, the hitch of Junpei's breath as his knee bumps Carlos's own. It's too dark outside and Carlos can see a shadowed reflection of them in the window, intermittently dispersed by streetlights; when the car slows to a stop, Akane looks up and meets his eyes. Junpei clears his throat.

"Sorry," Carlos says, and Junpei shakes his head and heaves a sigh.

"Stop apologising," he says. "Let's go, husband."

Carlos gives Akane a curious look, and she shakes her head, too. "Go on," she says, "newlyweds first. I'll meet you there."

 _You're the reason we did this,_ Carlos doesn't say, and instead takes Junpei's hand. Junpei leans into him on the way up, the heat of his body seeping through Carlos's suit and making him feel too warm; through the hotel lobby, up the slow elevator, he doesn't let go of Carlos's hand. "Is it worth it?" Carlos wonders, as the numbers tick up. "All of this?"

"Well, we do need to live here," Junpei says, mouth pulled into an indecipherable line. "I can't say I was expecting it... but Akane figured it was better this way."

"Better than... you and Akane?"

Junpei slants him a look that verges on irritation. "Carlos," he says, "I'm going to say this once. Stop pretending you're not a fucking catch."

Carlos opens his mouth to say something, but then Junpei is kissing him.

This isn't like before: at the wedding, entirely for show, or even at the reception, where it felt like there might be something more. Junpei kisses him fierce and hard like he has something to prove, a hand on Carlos's tie to pull him down and another scraping through the short hairs on the back of Carlos's neck and Carlos finds himself pulled in and pulled under, drowning in him and unable to move. Junpei drags him down the hall and fumbles the keycard before Carlos takes it from him, and even then it still takes him two tries to open the door; by the time they stumble in Junpei's hair is a mess, a flush on his cheeks and his shirt half-unbuttoned, and Carlos only comes back to his senses when Junpei shoves him down to the mattress and he realises Akane's standing by the door.

"Junpei," he starts, "Akane - "

When Akane kisses him she tastes of lipstick and second-hand champagne, with a clever mouth and cleverer hands as she brings Carlos's hand up her breast covered in fabric that feels like silk. Junpei brushes her hair off her shoulder and presses a kiss to her neck and Carlos feels the way she shivers, tastes the sound she makes. "Carlos," she says, "this is okay, right?"

It could be for one night; it could be for forever. Carlos doesn't think there's a universe where he says no. "Yeah," he says, and kisses her again, smiling against her mouth. "I guess you'll do."


End file.
